Medvedev to Romney: Tone down the Hollywood cliches, comrade

posted at 2:30 pm on March 27, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

It didn’t take long for Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to respond to Mitt Romney’s assertion that his country is the “number one geopolitical foe” of the US. Medvedev told American presidential candidates to “check their clocks,” as the year is 2012 and “not the mid-1970s”:

Romney clarified his statement yesterday by defining the “foe” remark as separate from “threat,” as Allahpundit predicted last night. While Romney says that a nuclear-armed Iran and/or North Korea represents the biggest threat to the US, Russia “aligns” itself with these bad actors. That’s certainly true; Russia has blocked sanctions efforts on Iran, at least, for years. They also sent “anti-terrorist troops” to Syria this month to back up Iranian ally Bashar Assad in Syria, a deliberate thumb in the eye to NATO, which had called for Assad to step aside and to stop firing on demonstrators. Russia is certainly not an ally, even if they’re not the binary opponent they were in “the mid-1970s.”

However, China also blocks sanctions against Iran, and hasn’t provided much cooperation on Syria, either. Economically, China is a much more worrisome force, although they’re also one of our biggest creditors, a situation that the Obama administration has made worse through its massive deficits. And whatever else one can say about Russia or China, I’m pretty sure that they’re not running assassination rings inside the Beltway as the Iranians have done.

Attempting to trade missile defense to gain political advantage in the election is bad no matter with which country Obama makes that deal, but we shouldn’t overplay the hand by taking the focus off of Obama’s naked manipulation of national security for his own electoral purposes. That hand will be powerful in the 2012 elections, The Hill writes:

Republicans used an unscripted remark by President Obama on Monday to label him as someone who could easily change his positions if he wins reelection.

In doing so, they sought to turn the tables on the White House, which had pounced on comments an aide to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney made about the general election being akin to an Etch A Sketch toy.

President Barack Obama today shrugged off an overheard private conversation with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev in which he suggested he’d be more “flexible” on missile defense after his re-election.

But the frantic Democratic reaction to his comments, and an intense effort to turn a presidential gaffe into a partisan food-fight, belies the official White House dismissal of the incident. …

Obama’s remark has already prompted outrage from Republicans, who asked what other deals with foreign leaders are being kept from the American people. The Republican National Committeereleased a video asking “what else is on Obama’s agenda after the election that he isn’t telling you?”

But Republicans and the Romney campaign see the Democratic response as a short-term effort to what will be a long-term problem for Obama. His promise of more flexibility to Russia — still the subject of much distrust by the American public who grew up during the Cold War — is easy fodder for an October attack ad. And his comment plays into the latest Republican lines of attack — that he’s a typical politician who is going to unleash his inner-most liberal if reelected.

That line of attack was already on the GOP plate, but Obama provided the ammunition all by himself. There’s nothing more powerful than having a short, punchy video clip that validates the worst of what opponents have to say about a candidate. It attacks Obama on the basic trust needed to woo voters, and it’s going to do a lot of damage — as long as the focus remains on Obama.

During his time in London Litvinenko wrote two books, Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within and Lubyanka Criminal Group, where he accused Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power. He also accused Putin of ordering the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

On 1 November 2006 Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised in what was established as a case of poisoning by radioactive polonium-210 and that resulted in his death on 23 November. The events leading up to his poisoning and death are a matter of controversy, spawning numerous theories relating to his poisoning and death. The British investigation into his death resulted in a failed request to Russia for the extradition of Andrey Lugovoy whom they accused of Litvinenko’s murder, contributing to the further cooling of Russia–United Kingdom relations.

And lets not forget about that plane carrying the President of Poland and half of his staff that crashed in Russia.

Pilot error my butt.

JPeterman on March 27, 2012 at 3:20 PM

weirdest, most bizarre episode in the entire history of that part of Europe…though, some of it should be blamed on the naivete of the Poles too, how on earth their security system allowed them to have/put so many state and govt top officials on the same plane?…what were they thinking?…especially that the plane destination was Russia…not to mention why they were there for, all of a sudden the Russians admitted and acknowledged the Katyn massacre, yeah, right…seriously, the naivete of the Poles on that one, is beyond me…

Bammie will bend over backwards to please Putin, and it will not cost Russian treasury a single cent. As a matter of fact, Putin can annihilate the jug-eared bum as easily as to casually drop a reference to his illegitimacy as a President in an interview or a press conference. American MSM won’t be able to hush-hush it or laugh it out of the room, like they use to do with local dissenters, just because it will be immediately reprinted by hundreds of foreign papers. That explains Bammie’s subservience to every foreign leader except those too tightly involved in our politics, such as Britain or Israel.

Granted he is accused of being a conspiracy nut, but what the heck, here’s more:

Litvinenko stated that “all the bloodiest terrorists of the world” were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos “The Jackal” Ramírez, Yassir Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Abdullah Öcalan, Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Hawi who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou from Cyprus, Sean Garland from Ireland and many others.” He says that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents in order to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR.[55] Litvinenko said that “the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin“.[56][57]

Where do these scumbags get the balls to inject themselves into our democratic process? This is OUR election, DUMBitri. Unlike you, we have actual contests to determine our leaders instead of the sham that your patron, Putin, puts on.

I don’t care if it’s the Democrat, Republican, or ANY party’s primary process. Foreigners can butt out.

That’s one more thing to like about Daniel Hannan, BTW. Whenever he opines on American politics, he is quick to quip that he has no say in the matter, “that was decided at Yorktown,” before sounding off.

Since when does Medvedev have anything to say about American rhetoric? We’ve all read and heard much worse than anything Romney said directed at the United States and at our politicians personally by Medvedev, Putin, and their proxies, since Medvedev took office.

IF you read all of Romney’s comment you understand that he pointed out that Russia has sided with every plan that opposes the position of the United States in global politics and has attempted to undermine and block this nation at every turning always siding with those who oppose us.

Russia, and the USSR before it fell, has been counterproductive on a global scale. They cast themselves in that position time and again despite repeated overtures and opportunities to work with us, rather than in opposition to us. Let’s face it… Russia just doesn’t work and play well with others.

Medvedev and Obama got caught, on an open mic,discussing acting privately in a way that the American people would not approve of, since Obama insisted that he would have more ‘flexibility’ on the issue of the missile shield for Europe almost certainly, and possibly even on the subject of warheads.

It is my considered opinion that Medvedev is now desperate and complicit in trying to mitigate the damage that those frank and unguarded comments have inflicted on Obama’s re-election hopes and thereby , any deal he may have been discussing with Medvedev, and through him,( Vladimir)Putin.

weirdest, most bizarre episode in the entire history of that part of Europe…though, some of it should be blamed on the naivete of the Poles too, how on earth their security system allowed them to have/put so many state and govt top officials on the same plane?…what were they thinking?…especially that the plane destination was Russia…not to mention why they were there for, all of a sudden the Russians admitted and acknowledged the Katyn massacre, yeah, right…seriously, the naivete of the Poles on that one, is beyond me…

jimver on March 27, 2012 at 3:29 PM

O.K., I’ll give you that, it was pretty stupid putting everyone on the same plane. I’m from Eastern Europe, my family is still there and I’ve got to tell you, that plane crash shook every Eastern European country to the core.

With the Russian demographic problem looming large and their status as a major power in jeopardy long-term, we should be allies against the third world, the Middle East, and China. However, the deals are too hard to make at this point.

The Russians will not negotiate when the US is in a position of weakness, which is why we must re-up the missile shields in Europe, and build them in India and Korea. Once they see we are serious then we can talk about making moves against China, et al.

Russia and the US should be natural allies versus China since we are both Western, Caucasian, and under threat of Chinese ambition.

The Russians will not negotiate when the US is in a position of weakness, which is why we must re-up the missile shields in Europe, and build them in India and Korea. Once they see we are serious then we can talk about making moves against China, et al.

Russia and the US should be natural allies versus China since we are both Western, Caucasian, and under threat of Chinese ambition.

I agree with Romney’s positioning though because it will give pause.

antisense on March 27, 2012 at 3:45 PM

Oddly enough, I see something more Nostradamus like coming out of all this. Self fulfilling prophesy perhaps.

This is certainly a gift for the eventual Republican nominee!!! I label this strike 3! Our friends are now enemies and our past enemies are our new BFF’s! Strike 1 was Obamacare, and strike 2 is an energy policy that has given us $4.40/gal of gasoline. We are not in the driving season yet…..which may further exacerbate the economy as travel plans fall short of expectations!

This is why BHO is in serious trouble. Even with the chaos among the Republican Primary candidates.

Going back a few years to the 1980 election…seems the Russians were vocal about how dangerous Reagan would be should he ever get elected. Something about how Reagan would shelve detente and take the entire world into global thermonuclear war…and the Left, faithful to their master’s voice, echoed the same all across America. They championed re-elect Carter and a new era of peace and peaceful coexistence will break out all over the world.

When a foreign leader steps in and makes statements about our candidates, such as Medvedev’s comments about Romney, one has to look a small step further. Why would a world leader make those comments? What is in it for them? Why are they involving themselves in a political process, an American political process at all?

Not like the Russians have had a long history of open, democratic, participatory clean politics in electing/anointing their leaders over the past century or so, to include the latest Putin forthcoming coronation.

LOL. Well, your jug-eared boy left Mitt an opening big enough to drive a Mack truck through. Don’t blame Mitt for taking advantage of the opportunity Jug-Ears gave him. At least Mitt doesn’t have to lie to make his points.

By the way, what do you suppose Jug-Ears intends to give Russia in the (increasingly unlikely) event he is re-elected:

O.K., I’ll give you that, it was pretty stupid putting everyone on the same plane. I’m from Eastern Europe, my family is still there and I’ve got to tell you, that plane crash shook every Eastern European country to the core.

JPeterman on March 27, 2012 at 3:43 PM

Any normal person in that part of the world should be highly skeptical of that episode, as of the shock, I am sure it scared the living heck out of any one over 40 from that part of the world, who remembers the crimes of the Soviet and their modus operandus…My mom too was born and raised in a Eastern European country, but fled to France when she was very young. So, I know a lot from her stories and though me and my siblings did not visit any Eastern/Central European country (including the country of her birth) until the fall of communism, we grew up hearing a lot about the Russians and their horrendous crimes.

Has Medvedev complained about Romney’s negative ads yet? Has he talked about Bain Capital and “Vulture Capitalism”? Who’s advising this guy? Get with the program, Medvedev and get an easier to spell name.

So stuff it Ivan, and don’t make us wake Uncle Sam up again. He’s passed out drunk and dreaming of unicorns but when he wakes up he’s going to have a wicked hangover and he’ll be pissed.

Given that the Russians are still helping the Iranians become a nuclear power, I don’t really care what they have to say on the matter.

They go out into the world to find something terrible to do and then tell the US “give us what we want or we’ll do that terrible thing.” You can give them what they want but they’ll still be threatening you tomorrow and the day after. If not that one terrible thing then some other terrible thing. It’s how they operate.

So given that, I think we need to turn the tables on them by finding a terrible thing we can do to them. I don’t know… maybe sending arms to Chechen rebels. Something the Russians really don’t want us to do but that doesn’t really impact our other foreign policy objectives. And then the Russians can threaten us all they want. We’ll just counter that with some other terrible thing we can do to them thus nullifying their nonsense.

Giving the Russians what they want is a losing strategy. We should be willing to cooperate with the Russians when they’re negotiating in good faith. But when they’re not we should play it right back at them quid pro quo.

I have never trusted the Russian’s, they have a history of palace intrigue that would frighten even the most cynical political hack in this country. Assassinations, subversive activities in foreign lands, playing real politic with millions of lives.. I was reading the National Review then, when the patron saint William F Buckley was still writing material for them. Their coverage of the cold war was much better than the even then weak Newsweek and Time..

And the stuff we heard through briefings, and through the ranks would curl alot of the young folks today’s hair. The third world,.. and democrat black caucus’s love of the story that AIDS was a CIA bioweapon that originated in a Soviet disinformation campaign.. though that Idiot Maxine Waters still believes it. That the US kidnaps people off the streets in Central American countries to harvest their internal organs for rich people’s transplants, which many central Americans believe to be true… that was the Russians again.. They have worked tirelessly to damage the US image abroad since the cold war started, and haven’t stopped with it’s end, or recanted any of it.

They may not be a direct threat anymore but they are the patron of all our current enemies in the world. Romney gets that,.. Santorum, probably,.. Obama?.. too busy kissing Putin’s damned communist bast*rd’s ring to notice. The way Obama sucks up to Putin is repulsive. It’s not blackmail.. it’s Obama’s romantic love for the old communist system..

you will never convince me otherwise.. like the borg,.. no one ever stops being a communist.. their dissidents never were real communists, they were always on the outside of that system, like the bulk of Russians were.

It didn’t take long for Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to respond to Mitt Romney’s assertion that his country is the “number one geopolitical foe” of the US. Medvedev told American presidential candidates to “check their clocks,” as the year is 2012 and “not the mid-1970s”:

Umm, Dmitri, it’s 2012, and Russians are still untrustworthy pieces of crap. Get it?

This is validation from the Russians, who don’t normally try their hand at US domestic politics, that Mitt hit home.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a leader that will actually take the fight to these jerkovs? The first step is to point out in public and not so public ways, how pathetic they are. That does more to tilt the field than any phsyical act.

We want to let them understand that we know in detail how weak they are. Once they can see their bluster is getting nowhere, they will have to buckle under (i.e. get out of Iran, Syria, etc).